| | Neoconservatives favor expensive foreign interventionism with massive federal spending, often to replace a dictator with a new system of government that may be worse. Sometimes this is expressed as a desire to install a democracy in a culture that may be incompatible with it. The neoconservative position was discredited in the failure of democracy in the Iranian elections of 2009. | | Neoconservatives favor expensive foreign interventionism with massive federal spending, often to replace a dictator with a new system of government that may be worse. Sometimes this is expressed as a desire to install a democracy in a culture that may be incompatible with it. The neoconservative position was discredited in the failure of democracy in the Iranian elections of 2009. |
| − | The neoconservative movement emerged in the mid-1970s, played a limited role in the [[Ronald Reagan]] Administration, and then had a voice in the Defense Department under the [[George W. Bush]] Administration after [[9/11]]. Candidates favored by neoconservatives for [[presidential election 2012|president in 2012]] include [[Newt Gingrich]], [[Mike Huckabee]], [[Mike Pence]] and, to a lesser extent because she pulls support away from those candidates, [[Sarah Palin]]. | + | The neoconservative movement emerged in the mid-1970s, played a limited role in the [[Ronald Reagan]] Administration, and then had a voice in the Defense Department under the [[George W. Bush]] Administration after [[9/11]]. Neoconservatives were prominent in the Bush Administration by supporting an interventionist domestic policy they called "[[compassionate conservatism]]" and a strong foreign policy, and especially favored the [[Operation Iraqi Freedom|Iraq War]] and its efforts to spread democracy worldwide. |
| | Some prominent spokesmen include [[Bill Kristol]], [[Paul Wolfowitz]], [[Lewis Libby]], [[Norman Podhoretz]], [[Charles Krauthammer]], [[Richard Perle]], [[Robert Kagan]], [[Christopher Hitchens]], [[Bernard Lewis]], [[Stephen Schwartz]], Elliott Abrams, Ben Wattenberg and Carl Gershman. | | Some prominent spokesmen include [[Bill Kristol]], [[Paul Wolfowitz]], [[Lewis Libby]], [[Norman Podhoretz]], [[Charles Krauthammer]], [[Richard Perle]], [[Robert Kagan]], [[Christopher Hitchens]], [[Bernard Lewis]], [[Stephen Schwartz]], Elliott Abrams, Ben Wattenberg and Carl Gershman. |
| | On foreign policy, neoconservatives believe that democracy can and should be installed by the [[United States]] around the world, even in Muslim countries such as [[Iraq]], [[Iran]], and [[Saudi Arabia]]. | | On foreign policy, neoconservatives believe that democracy can and should be installed by the [[United States]] around the world, even in Muslim countries such as [[Iraq]], [[Iran]], and [[Saudi Arabia]]. |